£319 Via ebay arrived in time for Christmas. Built Christmas Day nice quality. Came with a 10mm, 25mm Wide angle and a 2X barlow plus finder scope.

Went outside in daylight and aligned the finder with the tube and then waited for night which was promised to be clear. I was not disappointed. Venus, Mars, Orions belt, Pleiades, and Sirius all in one night. I even managed to get a photograph of Venus. ...

I took the opportunity of a brief window of observing the moon between it rising high enough at 2200, and the forecast of a front due to appear at 2300. The moon was waning 94%. Temp 8°C Wind 10mph NW.Chocky the Cat escorted me to the observatory door, and then went off on patrol.Two craters located near the terminator, Langrenus and Petavius stood out, but it was Mare Crisium which ...

As it got dark on 18th Jan the skies began to clear and the temperatures fell. By 9pm it was freezing, but the sky was very clear. I donned a couple of coats, ski boots and fur hat. Chocky the cat joined me as usual, pausing to drink from the frozen pond. (A trick she learnt as a kitten is to put her weight on the ice which causes the water to come over the ...

I got the Maksutov out early this morning to watch Saturn and the Moon low in the south-west. Saturn was a bit of a washout, too much cloud to see much. I watched the moon from transit at a 19.5° altitude to 04:30 BST at 26.2°azimuth south west with around a 96% illumination 388,285 kilometres away. I used 15 & 13mm Celestron Plossl EP’s sometimes combined with a 2x Barlow.

I'm currently doing a project on lunar impact flashes and will be taking observations with two remotely controlled telescope across the next year, when the weather is permitting and the Earthshine is optimal (having a good amount of shadow of the moon to allow the meteor impacts to show up). My main telescope is a 10" Meade telescope. I am ...

Due to the recent Comets, Enke, Ison, Lovejoy, Linear and Now the Latest Panstarrs I have been out at times that I have usually reserved for a quick look at early morning Venus/Mercury.

Apart from seeing some extraordinary Cometary activity over the past couple of months It has actually allowed me to observe more than any other January since I started this hobby seriously over20 years ago.

I have just bought my first telescope. Last night was a bit hazy here in Beckenham but I persevered aligning the scope and was amazed about the view I was able to see of the beehive cluster, which was not visible to the naked eye. This is the first time I've seen a cluster, I was pleased to have made the observation and look forward to seeing more.